Entropic Steering Criteria: Applications to Bipartite and Tripartite Systems

The effect of quantum steering describes a possible action at a distance via local measurements. Whereas many attempts on characterizing steerability have been pursued, answering the question as to whether a given state is steerable or not remains a difficult task. Here, we investigate the applicability of a recently proposed method for building steering criteria from generalized entropic uncertainty relations. This method works for any entropy which satisfy the properties of (i) (pseudo-) additivity for independent distributions; (ii) state independent entropic uncertainty relation (EUR); and (iii) joint convexity of a corresponding relative entropy. Our study extends the former analysis to Tsallis and R\'enyi entropies on bipartite and tripartite systems. As examples, we investigate the steerability of the three-qubit GHZ and W states.Comment: 27 pages, 8 figures. Published version. Title change

Dual antibiotherapy of tuberculosis mediated by inhalable locust bean gum microparticles

Despite the existence of effective oral therapy, tuberculosis remains a deadly pathology, namely because of bacterial resistance and incompliance with treatments. Establishing alternative therapeutic approaches is urgently needed and inhalable therapy has a great potential in this regard. As pathogenic bacteria are hosted by alveolar macrophages, the co-localisation of antitubercular drugs and pathogens is thus potentiated by this strategy. This work proposes inhalable therapy of pulmonary tuberculosis mediated by a single locust bean gum (LBG) formulation of microparticles associating both isoniazid and rifabutin, complying with requisites of the World Health Organisation of combined therapy. Microparticles were produced by spray-drying, at LBG/INH/RFB mass ratio of 10/1/0.5. The aerodynamic characterisation of microparticles revealed emitted doses of more than 90% and fine particle fraction of 38%, thus indicating the adequacy of the system to reach the respiratory lung area, thus partially the alveolar region. Cytotoxicity results indicate moderate toxicity (cell viability around 60%), with a concentration-dependent effect. Additionally, rat alveolar macrophages evidenced preferential capture of LBG microparticles, possibly due to chemical composition comprising mannose and galactose units that are specifically recognised by macrophage surface receptors. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.National Portuguese funding through FCT - Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia [PTDC/DTP-FTO/0094/2012, UID/BIM/04773/2013, UID/Multi/04326/2013, UID/QUI/00100/2013, PEst-OE/QUI/UI4023/2011

Some operators that preserve the locality of a pseudovariety of semigroups

It is shown that if V is a local monoidal pseudovariety of semigroups, then K(m)V, D(m)V and LI(m)V are local. Other operators of the form Z(m)(_) are considered. In the process, results about the interplay between operators Z(m)(_) and (_)*D_k are obtained.Comment: To appear in International Journal of Algebra and Computatio

Erros de distribuição em dose unitária: tipos e causas

Os erros de medicação são um problema de saúde pública com uma repercussão económica importante, afectando a qualidade de vida dos utentes e os custos em saúde. Ao nível da farmácia hospitalar, “que tem como principal função a dispensa dos medicamentos aos doentes de acordo com a prescrição médica, nas quantidades e especificações solicitadas, de forma segura e no prazo requerido, promovendo o uso seguro e racional do medicamento,” o erro de distribuição é definido como a discrepância entre a ordem prescrita pelo médico e o atendimento dessa ordem, podendo gerar oportunidades de erros de administração. Os erros classificam-se em função da etapa do circuito do medicamento em que ocorrem: prescrição, distribuição e administração. A distribuição de medicamentos em sistema de dose unitária (DMDU) está descrita como imperativo para aumentar a segurança no circuito do medicamento, prevendo uma distribuição diária de medicamentos, em dose individual unitária, para um período de 24 horas. Sempre que possível, a DMDU deverá apoiar-se em equipamentos semi-automáticos, para redução dos erros. Sendo a qualidade e segurança uma preocupação crescente e uma prioridade dos sistemas de saúde, os profissionais de saúde devem intervir activamente na melhoria dos sistemas de utilização dos medicamentos para garantir a segurança do doente. Consequentemente, vários estudos têm sido desenvolvidos para verificar os tipos de erros mais frequentes em farmácia hospitalar. Objectivo do estudo: identificar os principais erros de distribuição em dose unitária descritos na literatura nos últimos 5 anos e as suas causas, através de uma revisão sistemática

The involvement of sphingolipids in apoptosis induced by acetic acid in yeast

This work was funded by FEDER through the program “Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade-COMPETE” and by FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia) through the projects Pest-C/BIA/UI4050/2011 and FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-007047. A.R. was supported by a FCT fellowship (FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-007047)

Photorelease of amino acids from novel thioxobenzo[f]benzopyran ester conjugates

Aiming at the enhancement of the performance of (9-methoxy-3-oxo-3H-benzo[f]benzopyran-1-yl) methyl ester as photocleavable protecting group for the carboxylic acid function at long-wavelengths, 9-methoxy-3-thioxo-3H-benzo[f]benzopyran-L-valine and L-phenylalanine model conjugates were prepared through a thionation reaction of the corresponding oxo-benzobenzopyrans. These thioxobenzobenzopyran derivatives were subjected to photocleavage reactions in the same conditions as the parent oxo-benzobenzopyrans at different wavelengths of irradiation, and photocleavage kinetic data was obtained. It was found that the exchange of the carbonyl by a thiocarbonyl group enhanced the performance of the heterocyclic protecting group at 419 nm by improving the photolysis rates, making it an appropriate group for practical applications at long wavelengths.Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER) - POCI 2010Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - REDE/1517/RMN/200

Assessment of sediment contamination in an impacted estuary: differential effects and adaptations of sentinel organisms and implications for biomonitoring

Conferência realizada em Lisboa, de 6-9 November de 2013Estuarine pollution is reflected in the concentration of toxicants in sediments, depending on their geochemical properties, since sediments trap substances from the water column, either dissolved or bound to suspended matter. However, determining risk of sediment contaminants to biota has many constraints. For such reason, integrative approaches are keystone. Taking the Sado estuary (SW Portugal) as a case study, contrasted to a reference estuary (the Mira) within the same geographical location, the present study aimed at integrating sediment contamination with the effects and responses to pollutants in distinct benthic organisms with commercial and ecological value

Multi-level dynamic modeling in biological systems : application of hybrid Petri nets to network simulation

The recent progress in the high-throughput experimental technologies allows the reconstruction of many biological networks and to evaluate changes in proteins, genes and metabolites levels in different conditions. On the other hand, computational models, when complemented with regulatory information, can be used to predict the phenotype of an organism under different genetic and environmental conditions. These computational methods can be used for example to identify molecular targets capable of inactivating a bacterium and to understand its virulence factors. This work proposes a hybrid metabolic-regulatory Petri net approach that is based on the combination of approximate enzyme-kinetic rate laws and Petri nets. A prototypic network model is used as a test-case to illustrate the application of these concepts in Systems Biology.This work was partially supported by post-doctoral grant by Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (FCT) (SFRH/BPD/80784/2011), project PneumoSyS - A Systems Biology approach to the role of pneumococcal carbon metabolism in colonization and invasive disease (FCT contract: PTDC/SAU-MII/100964/2008) and by FCT (INESC-ID multiannual funding) through the PIDDAC program funds